A conventional electric part mounting apparatus of this type, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a printed circuit board transfer section 202 for transferring a printed circuit board 201 in horizontal condition in a fixed direction, a positioning device for locating said printed circuit board 201 at a predetermined position, a head main body 203 positioned above the printed circuit board 201 standing by at said predetermined position for mounting electronic parts on said printed circuit board 201, and an X-Y table 204 supporting said head main body 203 thereon and adapted to position said head main body at an optional position in two X and Y directions, said head main body 203 comprising a magazine holder for holding a row of magazines 205 with their part take-out ports directed downward, each magazine holding a row of the same kind of electronic parts, a part supply section 206 substantially horizontally positioned adjacent the part take-out ports of the magazines for transferring electronic parts taken out of the magazines to a predetermined position, means controlled to arrange electronic parts on said part supply section 206 in a predetermined order and adapted to deliver the electronic parts in said magazines 205 onto the part supply section 206, and an insertion head 207 for gripping electronic parts transferred by said part supply section 206 and standing by at said predetermined position and for inserting them into predetermined holes in said printed circuit board 201. Thus, the part supply section 206 and insertion head 207 are placed on the X-Y table 204 and moved in a horizontal plane, and the printed circuit board 201 is maintained in fixed condition during insertion of parts.
The arrangement described above has the following drawbacks.
(1) Since the arrangement of the insertion head is not suitable for lightweight construction, the total weight on the X-Y table is so large as to decrease the speed of movement of the X-Y table and the part mounting speed and require a large-sized drive unit. PA0 (2) Since there are restrictions on the weight and size that can be moved by the X-Y table, parts that can be mounted at a single supply of parts are limited in number and type.